Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Pivotal Moments

Births?
Deaths? Marriages? Moves? Job changes? In less than a week there have been
three deaths, one wedding, and one birth all within my church family. Some
expected. Some expected not quite yet.

People
have been breaking out into Elton John’s “Circle of Life” from The Lion King.

What,
you don’t break out into song in the course of your daily life??? Get with the
program. Listen to some show tunes.

Some
moments aren’t so obviously pivotal until you’ve traveled down the road a
piece.

Like that
time I was having a bad day and asked for one of the severance packages being
handed out. My wish wasn’t granted for another year “because I was too awesome”.
Okay, thanks?

Good
things happened, though. Over lunch with my former coworkers a year or two
later I was asked if – like everyone else who had moved on – leaving was the
best decision I ever made.

Yeah,
it was. But I had no idea what I was doing at the time.

Pivotal moment … separating the children at the
lunch table … one on the left …

… and one on the right. Maybe just a genius
moment.

That’s
fairly typical of some of my more pivotal moments … I had no idea what I was
doing at the time. Modern conventional thinking says you shouldn’t admit that
you have no idea what you’re doing.

Whatever.

God
knows.

Almost
three years ago I went to see a movie I’d been talking up to all my friends.
About a musician I liked. You wouldn’t think going to see a movie was pivotal.
A fun MLK day excursion for entertainment with sister and a friend, lunch with
the boy, and cream puffs in German Village. No big deal. Come to think of it,
one of the gentlemen from the church hosting the screening introduced himself
and asked what church we were from. “Oh, I was just there,” he said. That
would be for a funeral. I was there, too.

But
God. He was just getting started.

A few
months later the movie peeps announced retreats they were holding that fall. I
signed up and I showed up. I could use a vacay. A retreat. A respite. The
mountains of Pennsylvania sound lovely in October.

But
God.

Ha.

Fast
forward a few months. I somehow turned into a Mitch McVicker groupie. I met
Mitch at the fall retreat. 2015 included a concert (the same day as a wedding,
maybe not so coincidentally) … a concert hosted by my church … and a concert
requiring a road trip back to sacred ground in Pennsylvania.

And I
somehow turned into a production assistant, promoter / booking agent, occasional
public speaker, and whatever miscellaneous roles are required at a film
company. Now a nonprofit film company. A nonprofit film company that, as I
like to tell those who would receive the message well, “thus far makes PG13
Christian movies”. That got attention over dinner the other night.

Pivotal moment ... I chose the veggie delight on the basis of “very
tasty sauce” and also …

… ugh, ewww, ick …“thick yellow sauce” does not
sound good.

The fortune was life-changing, however.

Okay, I’m
predicting the next movie will be PG. And we’re about more than just the feature
films, although the ministry kind of grew out of the feature films. (But God.)
You can read more about the mission here.

Many
more months down the road … my head is spinning a bit. I’m prepping for another
Mitch concert. (I need roadies! Get with me.) I’m prepping for Ragamuffin Camp,
which may involve a little more than just packing my bag. And I’m
brainstorming, praying, and researching nonprofit fundraising and development,
biblical models of those, and yeah, I’m learning. Totally by the grace of
God I’ve networked into some great resources.